IDENTICAL STRANGERS

The book is "Identical Strangers; A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited" and the authors are Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein.
The book is non fiction with alternating entries by the two authors, identical twins who were adopted and raised by diffferent families. Elyse is in her mid-thirties and living in Paris when she begins to search for information about her birth mother. She never finds the mother but she does discover her identical twin. The two women meet and discover that they have much in common-- so much so that their chronicle is an important contribution to the dialogue about whether we are shaped more by nature or nurture.
Should twins be separated? How different would their lives have been if they had been raised together? These are the recurring questions that haunt these two women as they struggle to forge a new bond. Fortunately they are both articulate writers and have produced a fascinating, self written case study.

Unfamiliar Fishes

The book is Unfamiliar Fishes and the author is Sarah Vowell. The author writes about history -- and achieves the unlikely result of making it funny. This story begins with the arrival of US missionaries in Hawaii, followed by the development of sugar plantations, and finally the deposition of the last native ruler, Queen Liliuokalani. Vowell takes an ironic look at the benefits brought by the haoles (whites) -- such as literacy, balanced against the native Hawaiins loss of culture and autonomy. She is unsparing as she recounts the foibles of both sides in the many conflicts involved. Somebody once commented that an author is well on the way to fame when his/her name appears on the book cover in larger print than the title. If this is true, then Sarah Vowell is on her way.

Pagoda Dreamer

The book is Pagoda Dreamer and the author is Judith March Davis. Davis has written a biography of her mother Dorothy Rowe, based on her own recollections but largely aided by the letters that Dorothy wrote to her sister throughout her lifetime. The sister, known as Lurry, saved these lettters and presented them to Davis after her mother had died. The story begins in China, then moves to the states and then to Michigan, where a summer home in Pentwater plays a large part of the story. The book is a chronicle of a remarkable life; it also made this reader nostalgic for a time when people sat down and hand wrote long letters, sharing their feelings and perhaps administering a form of self therapy.
The story reminds me that I too have a box of letters. They were written by my younger self to my mother, when I was off adventuring in the world. I discovered them after my mother died, but for some reason I have never taken the time to read them. I wonder why??